DESC:FORM 2

THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENT RULES, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See Section 10 and Rule 13)

Title of invention:
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR A SECURED SMART LANDING PAD

Applicant:
Tata Consultancy Services Limited
A company Incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 1956
Having address:
Nirmal Building, 9th Floor,
Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021,
Maharashtra, India

The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND PRIORITY
[001] The present application claims priority from Indian provisional patent application no. 202121027021, filed on June 17, 2021. The entire contents of the aforementioned application are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD
[002] The disclosure herein generally relates to landing pad, and, more particularly, to a method and system for secured smart landing pad.

BACKGROUND
[003] Urban traffic is chaotic in many developing economies and pose great challenge in times of trauma in receiving blood bags (or other life-saving drugs) from blood banks. Timely availability of medical items is critical in life saving situations. It is becoming increasingly difficult for vehicles to navigate in dense traffic conditions to ensure safe delivery of healthcare items on time. In present autonomous delivery systems, delivery of healthcare temperature sensitive items to the exact desired location is a challenge due to Global Positioning System (GPS) error and is non-trivial. GPS error often range up to more or less than 5 meters. The major risk of current delivery systems is the threat of hackers or thieves to capture delivery payload by mimicking standard landing pad. Standard landing pad is not protected from unauthorized usage.
[004] Further the current systems use a static marker in the landing pad and does not change. This leads to loss of privacy and an intruder can take a picture of this marker from another drone and print the same in the vicinity thereby fooling the entire system and creating an insecure environment. Some available systems deal with pose invariant fiducial marker generation. The landing pad of such systems can be used by unauthorized rogue drones. The delivery of any items such as healthcare products and so on by drones is not authenticated by these systems.
SUMMARY
[005] Embodiments of the present disclosure present technological improvements as solutions to one or more of the above-mentioned technical problems recognized by the inventors in conventional systems. For example, in one embodiment, a method for secured smart landing pad is provided. The method includes detecting a plurality of drones in the field of view of an image capturing device of a secured smart landing pad wherein each drone among the plurality of drones comprises (i) a visual marker and (ii) a corresponding image capturing device; performing a first comparison of the visual marker of each drone with a first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad; performing based on the first comparison, one of: authenticating a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or activating a set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.
[006] In another aspect, a system for secured smart landing pad is provided. The system comprises memory storing instructions; one or more communication interfaces; and one or more hardware processors coupled to the memory via the one or more communication interfaces, wherein the one or more hardware processors are configured by the instructions to detect a plurality of drones in the field of view of an image capturing device of a secured smart landing pad wherein each drone among the plurality of drones comprises (i) a visual marker and (ii) a corresponding image capturing device; perform a first comparison of the visual marker of each drone with a first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad; performing based on the first comparison, one of: authenticate a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or activate a set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.
[007] In an embodiment, wherein when the first comparison is indicative of a match of the visual marker of two or more drones among the plurality of drones and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad, the method comprises: performing a second comparison of a second visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone from the two or more drones amongst the plurality of drones; performing based on the second comparison, one of: authenticating a drone amongst the two or more drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or activating the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the two or more drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.
[008] In an embodiment, wherein when the first comparison is indicative of a mismatch of the visual marker of each drone among the plurality of drones and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad, the method comprises: performing any one of (i) a third comparison of a third visual marker obtained by a drone among the plurality of drones with a corresponding visual marker of the secured smart landing pad or (ii) a fourth comparison of a fourth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker of each drone amongst the plurality of drones or (iii) a fifth comparison of a fifth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone amongst the plurality of drones; performing based on any one of (i) the third comparison or (ii) the fourth comparison or (iii) the fifth comparison, one of: authenticating a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or activating the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.
[009] In an embodiment, wherein the image capturing device of a drone detects two or more landing pads in an associated field of view, the method comprises: performing a sixth comparison of a sixth visual marker obtained by the drone with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each of the landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads; recognizing by the drone, the secured smart landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads to land based on the sixth comparison.
[010] In yet another aspect, a non-transitory computer readable medium for secured smart landing pad is provided by detecting a plurality of drones in the field of view of an image capturing device of a secured smart landing pad wherein each drone among the plurality of drones comprises (i) a visual marker and (ii) a corresponding image capturing device; performing a first comparison of the visual marker of each drone with a first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad; performing based on the first comparison, one of: authenticating a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or activating a set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.
[011] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[012] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this disclosure, illustrate exemplary embodiments and, together with the description, serve to explain the disclosed principles:
[013] FIG.1 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a system for a secured smart landing pad and a drone, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[014] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram depicting steps involved for a drone to land on the secured smart landing pad, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[015] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting steps involved for a drone among a plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[016] FIG.4 is a flow diagram depicting steps involved for a drone among the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad when there is a mismatch in first comparison, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[017] FIG.5 is a flow diagram depicting steps involved for a drone to land on the secured smart landing pad among a plurality of landing pads, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[018] FIG.6 is an exemplary diagram of a secured smart landing pad with a set of ejector pins, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[019] FIG.7A and FIG.7B is an exemplary diagram of a secured smart landing pad with a flexible web mechanism, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[020] FIG.8 is an example diagram that depicts a drone to land on the secured smart landing pad among a plurality of landing pads, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[021] FIG.9 is an example diagram that depicts a drone among the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[022] Exemplary embodiments are described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. Wherever convenient, the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. While examples and features of disclosed principles are described herein, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible without departing from the scope of the disclosed embodiments.
[023] Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 1 through FIG. 9, where similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the figures, there are shown preferred embodiments and these embodiments are described in the context of the following exemplary system and/or method.
[024] FIG.1 illustrates an exemplary block diagram of a system for a secured smart landing pad and a drone, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In an embodiment, the system 100 includes one or more processors 102, communication interface device(s) or input/output (I/O) interface(s) 106, and one or more data storage devices or memory 104 operatively coupled to the one or more processors 102. The one or more processors 102 that are hardware processors can be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units, state machines, graphics controllers, logic circuitries, and/or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions. Among other capabilities, the processor(s) are configured to fetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory. In the context of the present disclosure, the expressions ‘processors’ and ‘hardware processors’ may be used interchangeably. In an embodiment, the system 100 can be implemented in a variety of computing systems, such as laptop computers, notebooks, hand-held devices, workstations, mainframe computers, servers, a network cloud and the like.
[025] The I/O interface (s) 106 may include a variety of software and hardware interfaces, for example, a web interface, a graphical user interface, and the like and can facilitate multiple communications within a wide variety of networks and protocol types, including wired networks, for example, LAN, cable, etc., and wireless networks, such as WLAN, cellular, or satellite. In an embodiment, the I/O interface(s) can include one or more ports for connecting a number of devices to one another or to another server.
[026] The memory 104 may include any computer-readable medium known in the art including, for example, volatile memory, such as static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/or non-volatile memory, such as read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM, flash memories, hard disks, optical disks, and magnetic tapes.
[027] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram depicting steps involved for a drone to land on the secured smart landing pad, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[028] Referring to steps of FIG. 2, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processors 102 are configured to detect at step 202 a plurality of drones in the field of view of an image capturing device of a secured smart landing pad. In an embodiment, the phrase ‘secured smart landing pad’ may be referred as smart landing pad, secure landing pad, smart drone landing pad, secure drone landing pad, or landing pad and may be interchangeably used herein. The image capturing device can refer to a camera which is mounted on the secured smart landing pad. Each drone of the plurality of drones comprises (i) a digital screen that can show a visual marker and (ii) a corresponding image capturing device mounted on the drone. In an embodiment, 'visual marker' may also be referred as 'dynamic digital visual marker' and may be interchangeably used herein. The secured smart landing pad is further equipped with retractable set of ejector pins of different height (and profiles). The set of ejector pins which are located underneath the surface of the secured smart landing pad gets activated when the smart landing pad identifies a rogue drone. The operation of retractable set of ejector pins could be achieved using mechanical or electronic operations for projection and retraction. Another kind of secured smart landing pad with flexible web mechanism for preventing the rogue drone from landing may also be considered. When a rogue drone approaches to land on the secured smart landing pad, the flexible web inflates and prevent the rogue drone from landing. Such arrangements/examples of ejector pins and/or web mechanism for preventing rogue drones landing on the smart landing pad shall not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.
[029] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processors 102 are configured to perform at step 204 a first comparison of the visual marker of each drone with a first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad. When the secured smart landing pad detects the plurality of drones, it sends a message to a central control station (not shown in FIGS.). The central control station sends a first visual marker to the secured smart landing pad post receiving the message. In an embodiment, the first visual marker may be already available with the secured smart landing pad and hence the step of receiving the first visual marker from the central control station may not be necessarily performed. The secured smart landing pad compares the first visual marker with the visual marker of each drone among the plurality of drones. The comparison is performed by segmenting the visual marker area of drone and further performing a similarity detection or image matching. The secured smart landing pad captures the image of a corresponding visual marker of each drone and checks whether the entire area of the corresponding visual marker is covered in the captured image. If the entire area of the corresponding visual marker is covered in the captured image, then the secured smart landing pad uses one or more of suitable image processing techniques (as known in the art technique(s)) for image matching. If the entire area of the corresponding visual marker is not covered in the captured image, then the secured smart landing pad performs an image matching of the partially captured image with the first visual marker associated with the smart landing pad.
[030] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, at step 206, the one or more processors 102 are configured to perform one of the following steps based on the first comparison. More specifically, at step 206, the hardware processors 104 of the landing pad either authenticate a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol or activate the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism. If the first comparison matches with the visual marker of a drone among the plurality of drones, the secured smart landing pad recognizes the rest of the drones among the plurality of drones as rogue drones. The secured smart landing pad provides permission to the drone using the secure authentication protocol. An example implementation for secured authentication protocol is elaborated below. A message is transmitted to the drone by the secured smart landing pad to land. The message to be transmitted is appended with padding of suitable length for it to be processed by the media access control (MAC) Algorithm. Padding to the message transmitted ensures that it is of suitable length for MAC to create a digital signature for it. Further, a digital signature is created as a key for MAC algorithm. This digital signature is appended to the message and is then transmitted to the drone using Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) protocol through a secure tunnel where it is encrypted with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption. At the receiver, which is the drone, the message is received through HTTPS Protocol, and is decrypted. Digital Signature for the message is then calculated and is compared with the signature received. If it is same, the message has not been tampered, and if it is different, the message is tampered. This is an example secure authentication protocol. Any such authentication protocol that meets desired security standards may also be used.
[031] One of the physical safety control mechanism for the secured smart landing pad is explained as below. The secured smart landing pad activates the set of ejector pins if the rogue drone tries to land on the secured smart landing pad and a message is send to the central control station. The set of ejector pins when activated refrains the rogue drone to land on the secured smart landing pad. The ejector pins are beneath the secured smart landing pad are protected by a housing. The ejector pins may be of varying diameter with different kinds of tips, in one embodiment of the present disclosure. Also, they are of varying heights, which means that each ejector pin while in operation can reach different heights during back-and-forth linear motion. This ensures that the rogue drone which is attempting to land on the landing pad is refrained from landing on any portion/landing area of the landing pad. Each of the ejector pins may be dynamically adjusted by the landing pad in terms of its height and expansion in width depending upon the real-time movement and landing of rogue drone. In addition, it may be advantageous to have ejector pins of different cross-section like elliptical, triangular, etc. When actuated upon spotting a rogue drone, the ejector pins continuously operate in a linear motion, thereby, destabilizing the rogue drone from landing by literally ‘driving/knocking’ the rogue drone. During this process, it is possible that the rogue drone may get damaged and captured. It is intended that the varying heights of the ejector pins makes the rogue drone unstable and the imbalance would make it tilt in one direction, forcing the blades to contact obstacle and fall off. The varying heights of the ejector pins may cause physical damage to the blades of the rogue drone thus making it nearly impossible to escape. The reciprocating motion of the ejector pins could be generated by rotary devices such as electric motors. The linear-motor actuators generate low inertia with high drive forces, producing acceleration and speed that is good enough to damage the rogue drone. Likewise, any other back-and-forth motion mechanisms like mechanical cam or scotch yoke (slotted link) mechanism could be employed. FIG.6 is an exemplary diagram of a secured smart landing pad with a set of ejector pins, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[032] One another physical safety control mechanism for the secured smart landing pad is explained as below. The secured smart landing pad may be equipped with a flexible web mechanism that could inflate while a rogue drone is identified. The landing pad comprises a micro-compressor unit (not shown in FIGS.) beneath the secured smart landing pad which inflates the flexible web that uncoils from its original position and flaps upward to prevent the rogue drone from landing. During the process, the inflated webs causes the rogue drone to imbalance, thus ensuring that the blades hit the obstacle and falls off. Primarily, the flexible web ensures that the rogue drone falls off far from the secured smart landing pad. However, in some cases, it is quite possible that the flexible web gets entangled with the rogue drone blades. In such cases, the flexible web needs to be manually pulled off. There after the flexible web is deflated and a coiling mechanism beneath winds it back to its original position. A simple winding mechanism could be placed beneath the secured smart landing pad for the said purpose. FIG.7A and FIG.7B are an exemplary diagram of a secured smart landing pad with a flexible web mechanism, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. FIG.7A is an exemplary diagram of a secured smart landing pad with a fully inflated flexibles web and FIG.7B is an exemplary diagram of a secured smart landing pad with a fully deflated flexible web.
[033] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram depicting a method with steps involved for a drone among the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. These steps are performed when the first comparison results in a match of the corresponding visual marker of two or more drones among the plurality of drones and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad. FIG.9 is an example diagram that depicts a drone among the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[034] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processors 102 are configured to perform at step 302 a second comparison of a second visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone from the two or more drones amongst the plurality of drones. The secured smart landing pad sends a message to the central control station when the first visual marker is similar to the visual marker of two or more drones in the first comparison. The central control station sends second visual marker to the secured smart landing pad. The second visual marker may also be sent by the central control station to a drone which is among the two or more drones and tagged to the secured smart landing pad.
[035] The secured smart landing pad detects each drone in the field of view of the image capturing device using any object detection technique (as known in the art technique). The secured smart landing pad captures the image of the visual marker of each drone and localizes it for further comparison. The secured smart landing pad compares the second visual marker with the visual markers of two or more drones. The comparison is performed by segmenting the visual marker area of drone and further performing a similarity detection or image matching with the second visual marker.
[036] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, at step 304, the one or more processors 102 are configured to perform one or more following steps based on the second comparison. The one or more processors 102 either authenticate a drone from the two or more drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using the secure authentication protocol or activate the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism. The drone which has a similar visual marker as that of the second visual marker is provided a permission to land on the secured smart landing pad. The drone with a marker which does not match with the second visual marker is identified as rogue drones by the secured smart landing pad. The secured smart landing pad activates the set of ejector pins when the rogue drones try to land. Thus, refraining it from landing on the secured smart landing pad.
[037] FIG.4 is a flow diagram depicting a method with steps involved for a drone among the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad when there is a mismatch in first comparison, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The steps further are provided when there is a mismatch of the visual marker of each drone and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad.
[038] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processors 102 are configured to perform at step 402 any one of (i) a third comparison of a third visual marker obtained by a drone among the plurality of drones with a corresponding visual marker of the secured smart landing pad or (ii) a fourth comparison of a fourth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker of each drone amongst the plurality of drones or (iii) a fifth comparison of a fifth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone amongst the plurality of drones.
[039] The secured smart landing pad sends a message to the central control station if the visual marker of none of the drones is identical to the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad. The central control station sends a third visual marker to a drone among the plurality of drones which is tagged to the secured smart landing pad or sends a fourth visual marker to the secured smart landing pad or a fifth visual marker to both the secured smart landing pad and a drone which is tagged to the secured smart landing pad. In other words, in a first instance, a marker (e.g., third marker) may be received by at least one drone wherein no marker is received by the secured smart landing pad. In a second instance, a marker (e.g., fourth marker) may be received by the secured smart landing pad wherein no marker is received by any of the drones. In a third instance, both drone(s) and the secured smart landing pad receive a marker (e.g., fifth marker) for which a comparison is performed. At a given point of time, the third visual marker may be identical to (or matching with) the first visual marker. Similarly, the fourth visual marker may be identical to (or matching with) the visual marker of the drone which is tagged to the secured smart landing pad. The secured smart landing pad performs one of the third comparison, the fourth comparison or the fifth comparison as applicable.
[040] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, based on any one of (i) the third comparison or (ii) the fourth comparison or (iii) the fifth comparison being performed, the one or more processors 102 at step 404 are configured to authenticate a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using the secure authentication protocol or activate the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using the physical safety control mechanism. If the secured smart landing pad finds a drone with identical/matching visual marker to that of its first visual marker then the secured smart landing pad provides permission to the drone to land. The secured smart landing pad recognizes the other drones as rogue drones and activates the set of ejector pins if they try to land on the secured smart landing pad. Similar comparison and matching of visual markers can be realized in other instances as described above (e.g., refer the first, second and third instance scenarios).
[041] FIG.5 is a flow diagram depicting a method with steps involved for a drone to land on the secured smart landing pad among a plurality of landing pads, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. These steps are performed when there are two or more landing pads being detected in the field of view of the camera of the drone to land on the secured smart landing pad. FIG.8 is an example diagram that depicts a drone to land on the secured smart landing pad among a plurality of landing pads, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.
[042] As can be seen, in the field of view of the drone, there are two landing pads. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processors 102 are configured to perform at step 502 a sixth comparison of a sixth visual marker obtained by the drone with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each of the landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads. The drone performs the segmentation of the visual marker area followed by similarity or change detection. If the visual marker of the drone and the one of landing pads is identical (or matching) then the drone identifies it as the secured smart landing pad. However, if two or more landing pads have similar visual marker, then the drone sends a message to the central control station. The central control station shares a sixth visual marker to the drone and the secured smart landing pad. The drone performs the sixth comparison of the sixth visual marker obtained and the corresponding visual marker obtained by each of the landing pad.
[043] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the one or more processors 102 are configured to recognize at step 504 the secured smart landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads to land based on the sixth comparison by the drone. The drone identifies the secured smart landing pad among the two or more landing pads, if the sixth visual marker is identical to or matching with that of the visual marker of the secured smart landing pad. It is to be understood by a person having ordinary skill in the art or person skilled in the art that the first comparison, second comparison, third comparison shall not be construed as these many comparisons of visual marker of drone and visual marker of landing pad. In other words, these comparisons are an instance (or one instance) of comparison and shall not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.
[044] The embodiments of present disclosure herein provides a solution for secure landing of a drone among a plurality of drones on the secured smart landing pad and secure landing of a drone on the secured smart landing pad when there are plurality of landing pads. The disclosed method provides a dynamic marker methodology for a secure landing of drones on the secured smart landing pad. The secured smart landing pad identifies rogue drone(s) among the plurality of drones and activate the set of ejector pins when they try to land on the secured smart landing pad. Thus, the secured smart landing pad refrains the rogue drones from landing.
[045] The written description describes the subject matter herein to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the embodiments. The scope of the subject matter embodiments is defined by the claims and may include other modifications that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other modifications are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have similar elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims or if they include equivalent elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.
[046] It is to be understood that the scope of the protection is extended to such a program and in addition to a computer-readable means having a message therein; such computer-readable storage means contain program-code means for implementation of one or more steps of the method, when the program runs on a server or mobile device or any suitable programmable device. The hardware device can be any kind of device which can be programmed including e.g., any kind of computer like a server or a personal computer, or the like, or any combination thereof. The device may also include means which could be e.g., hardware means like e.g., an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or a combination of hardware and software means, e.g., an ASIC and an FPGA, or at least one microprocessor and at least one memory with software processing components located therein. Thus, the means can include both hardware means and software means. The method embodiments described herein could be implemented in hardware and software. The device may also include software means. Alternatively, the embodiments may be implemented on different hardware devices, e.g., using a plurality of CPUs.
[047] The embodiments herein can comprise hardware and software elements. The embodiments that are implemented in software include but are not limited to, firmware, resident software, microcode, etc. The functions performed by various components described herein may be implemented in other components or combinations of other components. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer readable medium can be any apparatus that can comprise, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
[048] The illustrated steps are set out to explain the exemplary embodiments shown, and it should be anticipated that ongoing technological development will change the manner in which particular functions are performed. These examples are presented herein for purposes of illustration, and not limitation. Further, the boundaries of the functional building blocks have been arbitrarily defined herein for the convenience of the description. Alternative boundaries can be defined so long as the specified functions and relationships thereof are appropriately performed. Alternatives (including equivalents, extensions, variations, deviations, etc., of those described herein) will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) based on the teachings contained herein. Such alternatives fall within the scope of the disclosed embodiments. Also, the words “comprising,” “having,” “containing,” and “including,” and other similar forms are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. It must also be noted that as used herein and in the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
[049] Furthermore, one or more computer-readable storage media may be utilized in implementing embodiments consistent with the present disclosure. A computer-readable storage medium refers to any type of physical memory on which information or data readable by a processor may be stored. Thus, a computer-readable storage medium may store instructions for execution by one or more processors, including instructions for causing the processor(s) to perform steps or stages consistent with the embodiments described herein. The term “computer-readable medium” should be understood to include tangible items and exclude carrier waves and transient signals, i.e., be non-transitory. Examples include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, hard drives, CD ROMs, DVDs, flash drives, disks, and any other known physical storage media.
[050] It is intended that the disclosure and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of disclosed embodiments being indicated by the following claims.
,CLAIMS:
1. A processor implemented method for a secured smart landing pad, the method (200) comprising:
detecting, via one or more hardware processors, a plurality of drones in the field of view of an image capturing device of a secured smart landing pad wherein each drone among the plurality of drones comprises (i) a visual marker and (ii) a corresponding image capturing device (202);
performing, via the one or more hardware processors, a first comparison of the visual marker of each drone with a first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad (204);
performing, via the one or more hardware processors, based on the first comparison (206), one of:
authenticating, via the one or more hardware processors, a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or
activating, via the one or more hardware processors, a set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.

2. The processor implemented method as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the first comparison is indicative of a match of the visual marker of two or more drones among the plurality of drones and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad, the method (300) comprises:
performing, via the one or more hardware processors, a second comparison of a second visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone from the two or more drones amongst the plurality of drones (302);
performing, via the one or more hardware processors, based on the second comparison (304), one of:
authenticating, via the one or more hardware processors, a drone amongst the two or more drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or
activating, via the one or more hardware processors, the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the two or more drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.

3. The processor implemented method as claimed in claim 1, wherein when the first comparison is indicative of a mismatch of the visual marker of each drone among the plurality of drones and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad, the method (400) comprises:
performing, via the one or more hardware processors, any one of (i) a third comparison of a third visual marker obtained by a drone among the plurality of drones with a corresponding visual marker of the secured smart landing pad or (ii) a fourth comparison of a fourth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker of each drone amongst the plurality of drones or (iii) a fifth comparison of a fifth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone amongst the plurality of drones (402);
performing, via the one or more hardware processors, based on any one of (i) the third comparison or (ii) the fourth comparison or (iii) the fifth comparison (404), one of:
authenticating, via the one or more hardware processors, a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or
activating, via the one or more hardware processors, the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.
4. The processor implemented method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the image capturing device of a drone detects two or more landing pads in an associated field of view, the method (500) comprises:
performing, via the one or more hardware processors, a sixth comparison of a sixth visual marker obtained by the drone with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each of the landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads (502);
recognizing, via the one or more hardware processors, by the drone, the secured smart landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads to land based on the sixth comparison (504).

5. A system (100), comprising:
a memory (104) storing instructions;
one or more communication interfaces (106); and
one or more hardware processors (102) coupled to the memory (104) via the one or more communication interfaces (106), wherein the one or more hardware processors (102) are configured by the instructions to:
detect a plurality of drones in the field of view of an image capturing device of a secured smart landing pad wherein each drone among the plurality of drones comprises (i) a visual marker and (ii) a corresponding image capturing device;
perform a first comparison of the visual marker of each drone with a first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad;
perform based on the first comparison, one of:
authenticate a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or
activate a set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein when the first comparison is indicative of a match of the visual marker of two or more drones among the plurality of drones and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad, the method comprises:
perform a second comparison of a second visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone from the two or more drones amongst the plurality of drones;
perform based on the second comparison, one of:
authenticate a drone amongst the two or more drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or
activate the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the two or more drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein when the first comparison is indicative of a mismatch of the visual marker of each drone among the plurality of drones and the first visual marker of the secured smart landing pad, the method comprises:
perform any one of (i) a third comparison of a third visual marker obtained by a drone among the plurality of drones with a corresponding visual marker of the secured smart landing pad or (ii) a fourth comparison of a fourth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker of each drone amongst the plurality of drones or (iii) a fifth comparison of a fifth visual marker obtained by the secured smart landing pad with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each drone amongst the plurality of drones;
perform based on any one of (i) the third comparison or (ii) the fourth comparison or (iii) the fifth comparison, one of:
authenticate a drone amongst the plurality of drones to land on the secured smart landing pad using a secure authentication protocol; or
activate the set of ejector pins of the secured smart landing pad using a physical safety control mechanism wherein the set of spikes when activated are configured to refrain the plurality of drones from landing on the secured smart landing pad.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the image capturing device of a drone detects two or more landing pads in an associated field of view, the method comprises:
perform a sixth comparison of a sixth visual marker obtained by the drone with a corresponding visual marker obtained by each of the landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads;
recognize by the drone, the secured smart landing pad amongst the two or more landing pads to land based on the sixth comparison.